Go Green: How to plant a fool-proof vegetable garden

Friday

Apr 15, 2011 at 12:01 AMApr 15, 2011 at 3:15 PM

Raised beds can yield more produce with modest effort.

Allecia Vermillion

Plenty of people would love to grow their own vegetables, but get discouraged by the time commitment and the learning curve, says Don Rosenberg, author of “No Green Thumb Required! Organic Family Gardening Made Easy.” He has built a business setting up vegetable gardens in clients’ backyards and offers plenty of advice on streamlining the process to avoid spending hours transplanting and weeding.

“My motto is, ‘I’m a lazy guy,’” he says. “I don’t want to do anymore work than I have to.”

However, he says most of his clients are moms. “I may be lazy, but they’re busy.”

Now is a good time to start planting summer gardens in most parts of the country. Here are some other suggestions for growing your own vegetables for people with limited knowledge, limited space and limited time.

Raising a garden

Raised planting beds are a great fit for a gardener without much time, according to Rosenberg. “Raised beds drain perfectly and warm up faster in the sun so you can plant earlier in the spring and stay later in the fall.” Additionally, tilling right into your native soil can bring weed seeds up to the surface, setting gardeners up for hours of weeding.

This approach also allows small garden spaces be incredibly productive. Rosenberg says a 50-square-foot garden can feed a family of four, especially if it has a trellis.

When to plant?

Planting for a summer garden should happen after the last frost in your area. Google your town and “last frost date” to find out specifics.

Setting up your space

A garden patch needs a minimum of six hours of sunlight. Rosenberg says beds can be as long as space allows, but should be no more than 3 feet wide so plants can be accessed and tended from both sides. The soil should be at least 10 inches deep.

Fill the raised bed with potting mix. “You don’t have to buy expensive organic potting mix,” says Rosenberg, but you do want organic fertilizers, rather than synthetic ones. High-quality soil is important because plantings are generally denser in raised beds, meaning more plants needing nutrients.

What to grow

With a few exceptions, anything is fair game, says Rosenberg. His five exceptions for small gardens: pumpkins, watermelon, cantaloupe, corn and okra.

While many gardeners start seedlings indoors and transplant later, Rosenberg advocates planting from seed to save time. His only exceptions are tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, which are trickier to grow, he says. “Let somebody else start those for you.”

A wealth of books and websites offer information on planting and tending vegetables. Rosenberg has more tips at www.instantorganicgarden.com.

*****

Did you know?

Have back problems? Build garden beds a bit higher to avoid bending over to care for plants.

While raised-bed gardening requires more frequent irrigation, again because of the dense plantings, it uses less water than traditional growing, according to Colorado State University Extension.